Blocking And Tackling: A Nasty LEGO Copyright Battle

Torsten Geller loved LEGO toys as a kid growing up in Germany. As a young father in England 15 years ago, he was indignant when he saw Mega Bloks and other construction toys that mimicked the designs of the iconic Danish brand.

"How could that be legal?" he recalls thinking.

Then he found out LEGO itself had copied the bricks invented by a British psychologist in the 1940s — or at least patterned its line after them. Within two years, he became one of those copycat manufacturers that had disgusted him, launching Best-Lock Construction Toys.

Now, Geller is in a court battle against LEGO. The corporation, with its U.S. headquarters in Enfield, sued Best-Lock in federal court in Connecticut in October, saying the company Geller heads is infringing on its copyrighted design of the little people that come in the sets, known as minifigures.

Best-Lock filed a counter-claim this month, charging that LEGO has influenced U.S. customs agents to seize Best-Lock shipments 14 times since July, keeping more than $750,000 worth of sets from reaching stores last year.

It's one of many legal skirmishes that Mega Bloks and now Best-Lock have had with LEGO over the last 20 years, after LEGO's patent protecting the dimpled underside of their blocks — what allows the walls to stand so firmly — expired. LEGO has mostly lost the lawsuits around the world.

This latest go-round is a window into the nasty, sometimes personal battles that lie behind the fun and games of the toy industry.

One reason for the many lawsuits: "The toy industry thrives on similar but not identical," said Chris Byrne, a longtime industry analyst who has been an expert witness in trademark and copyright cases, though never for LEGO.

"The number of lawsuits going on at any time is legion," Byrne said.

Geller, who runs Hong Kong-based Best-Lock from the west coast of Canada, said he decided to become a LEGO competitor in part because he thought it was unethical that the Danish firm copied the British bricks invented by Hilary Page.

In an interview Friday, he acknowledged the similarities between the shapes of Best-Lock's figures and LEGO's.

"I did the figures because I want to piss them off," he said.

But, Geller said, "The copyright of figures is completely loony."

Best-Lock's countersuit says its minifigures are "quite different, not substantially similar in appearance to any of the LEGO Minifigures" because they have protruding noses and eyes that are recessed, whereas LEGO men have perfectly smooth cylindrical faces.

Looking at the companies' figures side by side, the shape of the heads and bodies, and the way the legs lock into blocks and the heads lock into helmets, are very similar.

LEGO said through an outside spokesman that the company does not comment on pending litigation. The privately owned company had $1.37 billion in sales in the first half of last year, with 8,360 employees worldwide.

"Best-Lock has willfully and maliciously engaged in conduct offensive to public policy, governing statutes, common law principles, and established concepts of fairness," the LEGO lawsuit said. "Best-Lock's willful and malicious conduct was and is immoral, unethical, oppressive, and unscrupulous."

Geller's response is that it's LEGO that was unscrupulous and immoral.

It's not clear how courts will sort out LEGO's claim that Best-Lock is profiting from LEGO designers' creativity and Best-Lock's claim of improper influence, Byrne said. Of Geller's explanation for why he launched Best-Lock, a distant third in the construction toy industry, Byrne said: "That's an emotional argument that may make him feel better about being a knockoff artist."

Block By Block

The damage to Best-Lock is real, Geller said. He said the customs seizures are oddly random, with some shipments inspected and allowed to enter, even from the same container, and others coming in without inspection at all. He said less than 10 percent of the products was intercepted at ports as it was imported from China.

A spokeswoman at U.S. Customs enforcement said, "We have been seeing a lot of those" seizures in construction blocks, but was unable to give more details last week.

"Certainly Best-Lock is trying to trade on the goodwill and the brand equity that LEGO has, and they're coming very close to the line," Byrne said. He said that Mega Bloks has done a better job of innovating and licensing, and makes higher-quality sets than Best-Lock.

"Best-Lock is more trying to capitalize on what LEGO's doing at a lower price point. But that doesn't mean that they are infringing."

Best-Lock doesn't release sales figures, but Geller said the company is far below $100 million a year, even as it sells in 80 countries. U.S. sales account for 40 percent of Best-Lock's total sales, he said.